Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

“You won’t necessarily win against fate, but you should at least put up a fight.”

Here One Moment by Liane Moriarty

by 4 Comments

On a flight from Hobart to Sydney, a strange woman goes up the aisle delivers unnerving predictions to the passengers about when and how they will die. At first the passengers dismiss it as some kind of stunt, try to put it out of their minds – until the first deaths begin. When I reveal that I enjoy reading tarot cards, people inevitably ask if I actually think I can predict the future with them. Actually I am not really sure if one can, but […]

Murder mystery with women you won’t like

Scenes of the Crime by Jilly Gagnon

by Leave a Comment

This is a classic beach or vacation read, with I Know What You Did Last Summer vibes but. You know, I say that, but I haven’t read that actual book. I might have watched the movie a looooong time ago though. Ok, there are major differences probably. But we have a group of friends, including Emily, who lost their friend Vanessa one fateful night at her family winery conveniently high up on a treacherous ocean cliff. At Emily’s suggestion, several years later, the friends reunite. […]

God help this woman, I sure can’t!

Negative Space by Gillian Linden

by Leave a Comment

“No one is suggesting anyone should react to anything in any particular way.” I think that is the guiding principle of many people who, whether they realize it or not, end up showing tolerance and ambivalence at the same time. And it sums up how I felt about this book. When I first started listening to this book, I thought the narrator was a teenager. She is timid, insecure, anxious, questioning of every little thing around her. I soon realized she is a teacher at […]

Murder on an interplanetary cruise

The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

by Leave a Comment

What: A murder mystery in space!  Lovebirds Tesla Crane and Shal Steward are celebrating their honeymoon on an interplanetary cruise ship.  Tesla’s notoriety has them traveling incognito and all is going well until Shal finds a woman who has been stabbed in the corridor.  When the woman dies shortly thereafter, he is accused of murder.  Tesla and Shal work to solve the murder, clear his name, and try to have a honeymoon! Who:  Tesla Crane is a ridiculously rich heiress and retired roboticist.  Living with […]

Creepy Girl Stan Club

The Fragile Threads of Power by V.E. Schwab

by Leave a Comment

I’m a bit of mixed fan of the Shades of Magic. I love the world that was developed with it, and I love the way it treats magic. I am also a fan of the way the author V.E. Schwab writes—for the most part.  What I was not always a huge fan of was some of the characters, who who had a tendency to rub me the wrong way. I very much liked Kell from the original trilogy and I loved the main antagonist. But […]

Difficult Women

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox: A Novel by Maggie O’Farrell

by Leave a Comment

Maggie O’Farrell is one of my favorite contemporary writers. She has a great talent for historical fiction (read Hamnet and The Marriage Portrait), and she excels at telling stories of women who find themselves in untenable positions. In The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox, Esme is a woman who, like Agnes in Hamnet and Lucrezia in The Marriage Portrait, is unusual in ways that make her seem dangerous to those around her. She does not conform to conventional traditional female roles and, as we know […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo